["Host, that System on the other side is so impolite. I just said hello to that guy and showed off a bit, and as a result, its eyes turned red, redder than a capitalist seeing a fresh market to carve up. I even suspect it wanted to manifest a mouth just to bite me.
However, the combat power of the other party's Host does not seem high. Anyway, according to the judgment of the quest module, he is only worth 5,000 points. And that is after I pushed it to the maximum. I estimate there is a significant level gap between him and you."]
"Can't you see the information in the quest module?"
["We can only guide and filter the quests selected by the quest module, but exploring specific information through the quest module would be a violation, and a serious one at that."]
Caelus looked at the beautiful girl standing in the crater blasted out by the spacequake in the distance, as well as the blue-haired youth who appeared not far away.
Caelus did not pay as much attention as usual to what might be a scene in the world's stage play. Instead, he silently raised his hand. The power of Nihility rippled slightly, cutting a spatial rift through the air.
"System, why is the space in this world so fragile? Generally speaking, it should not be this fragile. Is this how this universe is set up?"
Caelus even felt that he only needed to use the storm stirred up by the power of Nihility and spread it toward the surroundings, and he could directly recreate the power of Enuma Elish from Gilgamesh's hand in the original myth.
However, at this moment, the System did not speak. It neither gave a quirky answer like "I don't know," nor revealed any information related to this matter. It simply remained silent.
And it was this silence that gave Caelus a significant warning, because the silence itself was telling him that there was something wrong with this world.
If there were no problems with the world, the System would definitely tell some cold jokes or dirty jokes in a joking tone, telling him how fragile this world was.
If there were a problem, the System might directly say that it did not know. But if the problem involved something major, perhaps even involving cheating or point-deduction items, the System would simply remain silent.
In other words, this world was not just a story about the male lead interacting and falling in love with those girls who appeared from spacequakes on the surface. There was a deeper situation behind it.
Caelus thought so, then watched as the blue-haired youth, who resembled a male protagonist, was taken away by a beam of light. Meanwhile, the girl with special powers who remained on the spot fought with the personnel who had arrived, who were likely specialists in handling such matters.
Those people were all female. Could it be that this world, like the Honkai world, had certain powers that favored females?
"Her strength is roughly at the level of an ordinary Pathstrider. The energy level in her body is indeed good, but she is unwilling to exert it fully and is somewhat passive, requiring emotional stimulation to enter an active state."
Caelus only watched this held-back battle for a while before looking away, preparing to get a device that could access the internet and check this world's history.
Did the spacequake phenomenon in this world really start thirty years ago, or were there traces of it even earlier?
At this time, Itsuka Shido had already heard the explanation about Spirits from his younger sister, Itsuka Kotori. Out of pity for the tragic Spirit girl, he agreed to join the Date A Live plan.
After being teleported back to the surface by the aerial battleship, Shido had another exchange and agreement with the Spirit girl, arranging to meet next time and laying the foundation for the dating operation.
Meanwhile, in a corner of the shadows, a certain black-haired youth who had concealed his own existence watched Shido.
"The first act of the plot is about to end, and that System Holder still has not appeared? It seems they do not intend to participate in the main plot and want to be a camper hiding in the dark."
"I do not know what kind of power system the other party has. The System has not given any information at all. With such a rich reward, I am a bit unsure. If the other party can counter my Power of Existence and see through my plan to devour Itsuka Shido's existence, I might have to face Takamiya Mio's pursuit... With the destructive power to cleanse the surface and those mechanism-like abilities, she is at least Fourth Tier."
The youth thought to himself, feeling hesitant for a moment about whether to continue devouring Shido's existence.
Ultimately, he gave up on directly devouring the existence of this protagonist of fate. Although the power and rewards after success would be very rich, the risk was too great under the current circumstances. It would be better to devour Westcott. As the managing director of DEM Industries, he had sufficient combat power under him, and more importantly, he possessed a large amount of resources and intelligence.
"When the time comes, I will use Honjou Nia's ability. I do not believe I will not be able to find you, you hiding camper!"
The youth thought so, then vanished into the shadows.
And the "hiding camper" he was so concerned about was currently fiddling with a computer, looking through the past history of this world and incidentally preparing courseware for a future history class.
Thus, a bizarre situation occurred. Until Shido successfully conquered Yatogami Tohka and sealed her Spirit power through a kiss, neither of the two System Holders, who were supposed to be fighting to the death in this world, had made an appearance.
Inside the apartment room, the pink-haired girl hummed a song, pouring the marinated food from the cutting board into the pot and skillfully beginning to stir-fry.
The gray-haired young man sat in the living room wearing a pair of glasses, flipping through a book.
"Partner! The food is ready. We can eat now!"
Cyrene came out carrying the dishes. After setting them down, she took off her apron and said with a smile to Caelus, who was reading.
Caelus put down the book and took off his glasses. He was not nearsighted. Or rather, he did not have the concept of nearsightedness. The reason he wore glasses was purely because Cyrene felt that her Partner had a very literary temperament and looked especially good when wearing glasses to read, so he put them on.
"Partner, tomorrow is your first day as a teacher. Are you feeling nervous?"
Because of the spacequakes, the school, which had only just started not long ago, had been suspended for a few more days.
"Based on the various materials I have found online, I do not think there will be any problems in that regard.
Has the other System Holder appeared?"
Over the past few days, Caelus had been flipping through the histories of various countries. Although some things were hidden very deeply, he still found some special things through his methods.
In this world, besides the supernatural beings called Spirits that appeared after that giant spacequake, there was also a group of people among humans known as Magi.
They could not be considered an independent race, but rather special individuals who appeared among humans. These special individuals, like the Magi in the Type-Moon world, possessed special powers.
However, in the histories of various countries, these people were either burned as heretics or hunted by high-level authorities at different points in time. Nowadays, their traces were especially faint and impossible to find.
"No. I have also wandered around Tengu City these past few days, and besides finding two Spirits, I have not seen any other special individuals."
Cyrene shook her head, indicating that she had not found any traces over the past few days either.
"According to my research on the history of this world, from the beginning of recorded history, the creatures known as Spirits did not exist in this world until they began to show traces thirty years ago, while traces of Magi run through the entire history of civilization."
In ancient times, Magi who possessed special powers were revered by people as gods or immortals.
As history progressed and humanity multiplied, the power of Magi was no longer absolute, and they began to gradually fade from the stage of history.
In the modern era, after humanity fully mastered gunpowder technology, Magi began to be hunted in return. Humans wanted to discover the reason why these Magi obtained their extraordinary powers, hoping to use that knowledge to achieve a higher level of technology.
It was not until thirty years ago that the appearance of Spirits interrupted people's pursuit of Magi. Because of the immense power of the Spirits, countries have now turned their attention toward them.
So, did Spirits appear because of Magi, or are they an invasive alien species? Are they the culprits behind the weakness of space in this world?"
The thirst for knowledge that Caelus inherited from the many scholars at Herta Space Station made him want to uncover the secrets behind this matter.
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)